A new castle for aviation support company relocation

Goodbye Minnesota winters, hello Southwest Florida. 

That's one unavoidable sun-kissed truth to a recent corporate relocation news announcement. The company, Newcastle Aviation, which specializes in aviation parts commerce and logistics, decided to move its corporate headquarters from Burnsville, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul, to Fort Myers. A global company that supports the commercial airline, regional airline and general aviation industries, Newcastle is building a, 40,000-square-foot facility at the Southwest Florida International Airport. 

Construction for the new headquarters, on Domestic Avenue off Alico Road, west of Interstate 75, is underway and expected to be complete by January. In total, the company plans to invest at least $2.59 million in the new headquarters project. 

But it's not just weather that keyed Newcastle's desire for a, um, a new castle.

For one, Florida and Lee County will provide $60,000 in jobs performance-based incentives for the move. The company, for the $60,000, is required to create 12 jobs within three years and follow through with the planned multimillion-dollar investment. Those new jobs new will pay an average of $56,325, including those moving with the company, the release states. Newcastle currently employs 11 people, and CFO Rich Ogle tells Coffee Talk about seven to eight of those employees will relocate.

Incentives were just one factor that attracted Newcastle. “There is obviously the climate, but it also puts us close to one of the hotbeds in the aviation industry,” says Ogle. “In Florida, the number one industry by GDP is aviation and aerospace. Taxes were another consideration as well as the health of the economy of Lee County and Southwest Florida.”

Founded in 2006, Newcastle provides asset management, sales, acquisitions, leases and appraisals on aviation components and parts. In addition to office space, the new building will include a warehousing area and room for expansion. “We hope that this will be the first of several projects under the Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund with the State of Florida and Lee County as we continue to grow and our hiring needs increase,” Ogle says.

The move also presents a growth opportunity for Newcastle. The company, Ogle says, was constrained by the lease and rental market in the Twin Cities area. “We ended up determining the economics of buying land and building were favorable,” he adds.